Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to software licensing and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for licensing web assets.
Description of the Related Art
Software licensing has become commonplace for companies, such as ADOBE® Systems Incorporated. Typically, when a user licenses a software application, the license is validated for the software application each time the software application is executed. If the license for the software application has expired, the application does not run. Web assets, such as specialized fonts, cascading style sheets (css), images, and the like, are digital text, media or multimedia files that also include a right to use. Web assets are typically not purchased in conjunction with a specific software application, and are purchased and licensed separately from applications with which they can be used. Once purchased, web assets can be shared among multiple software applications. Web assets differ from features of a software application in that when a feature of a software application is modified or added, the software application is impacted by the change. However, additions or modifications to web assets have no impact on the software applications in which they may be used. Web asset files are use agnostic, that is, uncommitted to and independent of any particular use, and are typically stored and accessed individually in a computer memory.
Rights management for web assets is a difficult task. Because a web asset is not protected within a software application, anyone may download and use it. For example, a user may create a document using ADOBE® INDESIGN® including a specialized font that the user has licensed, whether through a trial, perpetual or subscription purchase. When the user shares that document with a second user who has not purchased a license to the specialized font, the second user cannot view the areas of the document that used the specialized font because the specialized font is not on the second user's machine. However, it is easy for the second user to download the unlicensed font by copying them from the user who created the document. This results in a loss of revenue for the company that owns the web asset.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved method and apparatus for licensing web assets.